Swap Insanity: The RingBrothers’ 1972 Winnebago, “The Happy Camper”

We know the Ringbrothers are happy campers, but now they’ve rubbed off on their Barret-Jackson purchase that they made in January of this year – a 1972 Winnebago Brave that they’ve dubbed “The Happy Camper.”

Upon the purchase of the classic RV, they found that the Mopar 318 engine was very tired, and the rig needed new tires as well, so they loaded it onto a flatbed and sent it off to it’s new home in Spring Green, Wisconsin, where their shop is located. Once the Ringbrothers unloaded their new project off of the truck, they immediately began to remove everything, including the weathered stock engine.

With a blank canvas of an RV sitting in front of them, it was time to formulate a build plan and start fabricating – they decided that the interior would be themed after a World War II bomber. First and foremost, the Ringbrothers wanted to get their RV sitting on it’s feet again, so they installed new wheel bearings, replaced the brakes, and mounted some new tires on the existing wheels.

With the original V8 out of the engine bay, the Ringbrothers dropped in a Wegner Automotive-built 6.0L LS-based engine (we’re guessing it’s an LQ9 or truck engine of some sort) equipped with an MSD Atomic EFI system, ignition coils, and wires, Aeromotive fuel system components, and a Bowler automatic transmission that has been built to handle the power from the engine as well as the weight of the RV.

We absolutely love the way this project turned out – it’s rare to see a performance shop build an RV, especially a classic Winnebago with an LS-based engine.

About the author

Josh Kirsh

Born in Van Nuys, Raised in Murrieta, Joshua Kirsh is a SoCal Native. With a love for anything on wheels since the ripe young age of two, Joshua Managed to turn his love for automobiles into a career. As Power Automedia's newest writer, he plans to bring you some of the industry's hottest news topics while he's not out in the shop wrenching on some of our badass in-house project builds.